The indictment remains sealed and it is unclear what crimes or how many criminal charges Trump has been charged with.
Former US President Donald Trump is expected to be formally arrested and arraigned on Tuesday, the first time a former White House occupant has faced criminal charges.
In an unprecedented move in US history, a grand jury in New York voted Thursday to indict Trump on charges related to bribing a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign.
The highly anticipated charges come as Trump seeks to return to the White House after losing re-election in 2020, making him the only president, current or former, and the only presidential candidate to be indicted.
The indictment remains sealed and it is unclear what crimes or how many criminal charges Trump has been charged with. CNN reported that the former president has been indicted on more than 30 counts. VOA could not confirm the report.
In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said it had contacted Trump’s attorney “to coordinate his delivery to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for arraignment on an indictment by the Court.” Supreme”.
To turn himself in, Trump, who lives in Florida, will have to travel to New York, along with his Secret Service detail.
Also read Who is who in the investigation of Donald Trump?
Once in custody, he would be fingerprinted and photographed before being arraigned before a judge and released on parole.
Multiple news outlets, citing unnamed sources, said Trump plans to fly to New York on Monday and spend the night at Trump Tower before appearing in court on Tuesday.
On Friday, Secret Service and New York Police Department officials toured the courthouse where Trump will be arraigned and discussed security plans.
Susan Necheles, a lawyer for Trump, told Reuters that the former president will plead not guilty.
“I am not afraid of what is to come,” Trump said in a fundraising email on Friday.
The Trump campaign has used the impeachment in its fundraising efforts and said it raised more than $4 million in the first 24 hours after the impeachment was announced.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump criticized the judge expected to oversee his case, Judge Juan Merchan. He wrote the judge on Friday “HE HATES ME” and treated the Trump Organization “VIVIOUSLY” during last year’s trial in which the company was convicted of tax fraud.
Trump will appear in court
In a statement Thursday, Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing in the case, brought the impeachment as part of a longtime Democratic-led witch hunt to destroy his “Make America Great Again” movement.
“This is Political Persecution and Electoral Interference at the highest level in history,” the former president wrote. “The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘get Trump,’ but now they have done the unthinkable: indict a completely innocent person in an act of blatant election interference.”
Rather than harm his candidacy, Trump said the impeachment “will go a long way against [el presidente] Joe Biden”.
Last week, writing on his social media platform, Trump warned of “potential death and destruction” if impeached, a statement some critics saw as incitement to violence.
Reactions from Republicans and Democrats
The indictment, though widely expected, sparked a political firestorm in Washington.
“Shocking,” tweeted Republican Congressman and Trump loyalist Jim Jordan.
Incoming Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy of California holds the gavel after accepting it from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York on the House floor on Capitol Hill of the United States in Washington on January 7, 2023.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused Bragg of arming the justice system against Trump and vowed the House would hold the prosecutor and “his unprecedented abuse of power” to account.
Other Republicans who are not particularly close to Trump also viewed the impeachment as politically motivated.
The reaction from the Democrats, on the other hand, was predictably favorable.
In a statement, former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote that the grand jury “has acted on the facts and the law.”
“No one is above the law and everyone has the right to a trial to prove their innocence,” he wrote. “Hopefully the former president peacefully respects the system that grants him that right.”
President Biden declined to comment on the matter on Friday, telling reporters: “I’m not going to talk about the Trump impeachment.”
The allegation stemmed from a federal investigation into secret payments that then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The secret payment came to light in early 2018. Going back to her former boss, Cohen testified in August 2018 that, at Trump’s direction, she paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with the real estate mogul-turned-real estate mogul. as a Republican candidate. The Trump Organization later reimbursed Cohen for “legal” services.
While paying hush money is not illegal, federal prosecutors charged that classifying the payment as a “legal” fee violated federal campaign finance laws.
What will Trump’s court appearance in New York be like?
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple federal criminal charges, including campaign finance violations, and later served more than a year in prison.
While federal prosecutors did not indict Trump at the time, the Manhattan district attorney’s office subsequently took up the case and began taking grand jury testimony in January.
Cohen, the prosecutors’ star witness, testified before the panel several times.
In a statement released Thursday, Cohen said he stood by his testimony and the evidence he provided to prosecutors.
While the indictment remains sealed, legal experts say the charges against Trump likely center on New York’s false business records law.
Under the law, falsifying business records is normally a misdemeanor. When done with the intent to commit or conceal a second offense, it rises to the level of a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
It is unclear what, if any, additional crimes Trump has been charged with.
Although prosecutors typically bring charges against a defendant only when they believe they can secure a conviction, Trump’s conviction is far from certain, according to legal experts.
While Trump admitted to reimbursing Cohen for the hush money payment, he said it “had nothing to do with the campaign.”
His lawyers have blamed Cohen.
“The payments were made to a lawyer, not Stormy Daniels,” Joseph Tacopina, one of Trump’s lawyers, said on MSNBC recently. “The payments were made to Donald Trump’s attorney, which would be considered legal fees,” he said.
Cohen was “his attorney at the time and advised him that this was the right way to do it, to protect himself and his family from embarrassment. It’s as simple as that,” Tacopina said.
But other legal experts argue that prosecutors should be guided by a long-standing principle: Treat similar cases the same.
In a recent article on the Just Security website, co-editor-in-chief and New York University law professor Ryan Goodman highlighted cases that he said show how New York prosecutors “have thrown the book at the individuals for falsifying business records, some cases involving actions far less egregious than Trump’s alleged conduct.”
In 2021, a mental health therapy assistant was charged under the statute with defrauding more than $35,000 in workers’ compensation benefits.
Last year, an insurance broker was charged with allegedly creating and submitting fraudulent liability insurance certificates in order to further conspire to defraud.
The secret money charge is not the only criminal case facing the former president.
In Georgia, prosecutors are considering filing criminal charges in connection with Trump’s attempt to overturn the result of the state’s 2020 presidential election. Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, US Justice Department-appointed special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating Trump’s role in trying to upend Biden’s victory, as well as his handling of classified documents after he left office.
While in office, Trump was twice indicted, but not convicted.
[Parte de la información de este informe provino de The Associated Press y Reuters]
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